HUMAN-ROBOT ENGAGEMENT

in the Home, Workplace and Public Spaces

Social robots work closely with people safely and efficiently and are designed to add value to people's lives. Social robots are a disruptive technology, poised to have a profound impact on business, society and the global economy.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Softbank Robotics have joined forces to organise an exciting workshop at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence on Human-Robot Engagement in the home, workplace and public spaces.

A self-driving vehicle is an example of a social robot, not only does it need to drive on the road safely but it must also create enjoyable experiences for humans inside the vehicle, while at the same time communicating with and anticipating nearby cars, pedestrians, city infrastructure, land and space based technologies. Other social robots include robots that care for people in hospitals and in their home; robots that play with children and teach them. The key to success of any social robot is how well it can engage people around it as it pursues its design goals. The critical research question is how can we design social robots to enhance the human experience and improve people's lives?

The purpose of this workshop is to explore how social robots can gain people's attention when required, and create engaging experiences. The workshop will focus on social robots in the home, workplace and public spaces. Robot encounters in public spaces will be different to those in workplaces where a robot is a long-term partner and expected to help humans be more productive. The key research challenges are autonomy, proactivity and intelligence, sociability.

Social robotics is a transdisciplinary field. We seek to bring together research interests that are not traditionally 'close'. In particular, the workshop will provide a venue for fruitful discussion between artificial intelligence researchers exploring pervasive computing, social robotics, cognitive science, software engineering, law, AI planning and knowledge representation.